joel, i'm glad you were here to help me do the math in realtime and rick, thanks a lot. >> okay, guys. coming up millions saw clint eastwood's conversation with an empty chair as a stand-in for president obama at the rnc convention last year. still ahead we're going to get the inspiration behind the empty chair idea. plus, stocks to watch ahead of the opening bell. we're going to check in with jim cramer at the new york stock exchange. >>> welcome back to a special edition of "squawk box" where we are live from pebble beach. yesterday we got the opportunity to catch up with clint eastwood and ask him about that famous empty chair speech at the republican national convention last year. obviously it caught a lot of people's attention, and he's still hearing from people when he walks down the street. here's what mr. eastwood had to say about that. >> i just decided to go a little different route because i figured they've already heard that from about ten other people in front of me. so i just try something little anew. and it probably seemed odd at the time. but, you know, i'm an odd per